What Does it Mean by Mixed Cell Referencing in Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to enter information into cells, and then use that information to create formulas in other cells using a process called cell referencing. By default, when you copy a formula from one cell to another, the cell references will change relative to the change in location for the formula. Mixed cell references work slightly differently, as they will change either the column or the row, but not both.

Relative Cell References Relative cell references are simply a reference within a formula that points to another cell on the spreadsheet. Relative cell references have no special characters and are the default way that Excel handles references. If you have a formula with "A1" in it, signifying that the formula requires the value in cell "A1" and you move that formula two cells below and one cell to the right of its original position, the reference will automatically change to "B3," as "B3" is two cells down and one to the right of "A1."
 

Absolute Cell References Absolute cell references are the exact opposite of relative cell references, as absolute references will never change. Absolute cell references are signified by a " quot; placed in front of both the column letter and row number of the reference. For example, if you want to make an absolute reference to cell "A1," you would write it as "$A$1." If you copy and paste a formula with an absolute reference to a new cell, the references in the formula will remain unchanged.
 
Mixed Cell References It is possible, and often handy, to have a mix of absolute and relative references within the same reference. Doing this creates a mixed cell reference. When creating a mixed cell reference, you place the dollar sign in front of either the column reference or the row reference, but not both. For example, "$A1" would shift the rows if you copy your formula down on the spreadsheet, but will always refer to column "A."
 
Moving Between Reference Types Microsoft Excel 2010 gives you an easy method for changing a cell reference to a mixed reference. Just click on the cell that contains your formula, then click on the reference in your formula bar above the spreadsheet. Press "F4" to cycle the reference through a relative reference, and absolute reference and both kinds of mixed references (one with the columns fixed, and one with the rows fixed). If you highlight the entire formula, pressing "F4" will cycle through the reference types for all the references in the formula.